- Apple's M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBooks are imminent, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman
- Gurman claims both MacBooks may arrive 'as early as the week of March 2'
- Both are rumored to be using the same chip
Apple's M5 lineup isn't complete yet, as fans await MacBook M5 Pro and M5 Max chip launches, and fortunately, it looks like that silicon may be closer than ever.
The MacBook M5 Pro and M5 Max are set to launch 'as early as the week of March 2', according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This comes after a noticeable delay in shipping for MacBook M4 Max orders, indicating a short supply, and Gurman believes that it's 'a telltale sign new models are coming'.
It's also worth noting that a recent leak reported by 9to5Mac suggests both the M5 Pro and M5 Max models may, in fact, run on the same chip. This claim comes directly from tech enthusiast Yadim Yuryev, who stated that there is no sign of a distinct M5 Pro chip found in a beta code leak.
We've seen a similar case with Nvidia, which has used the same die on the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 GPUs, and the former offers performance fairly close to its elder.
Apple's choice to use the same base chip (if rumors are legitimate) points to a potential case of 'chip binning' for manufacturing, which is a process that sees semiconductors examined and sorted immediately after initial production, with partially defective (but still functional) chips used for lower-end or less powerful products – in this case, the M5 Pro.
To bin or not to bin
To be clear, there's no immediate need to panic about dodgy MacBooks here; binning is a common industry practice, ensuring chip manufacturing is kept resource- and cost-efficient, thought it does effectively mean that M5 Pro buyers may ultimately end up buying the lower-quality chips that didn't make the cut for M5 Max devices.
But that shouldn't sway consumers away from the upcoming M5 Pro Macs. Apple's MacBooks typically ship in excellent condition with a high degree of quality control, and the chip binning process reduces waste, increases product availability, and improves consumer affordability.
Gurman's claims of a March 2 launch date tell us it shouldn't be too long until both MacBook M5 Pro and M5 Max models are reviewed and analyzed, and it will be interesting to see the potential differences, especially with how high the M5 Pro's performance ceiling is expected to be.
Both the M3 and M4 Pro and Max chips use different base silicon dies, so we could be set for a significant change for high-end MacBooks in the M5 lineup.
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